Landlords Character Analysis in The Wealth of Nations

In societies where most or all land is privately owned, landlords are the people who own that land and live off the rent that others pay them. While they tend to be passive, consuming much while working little, their interests are actually aligned with society’s. This is because, the more a society’s division of labor advances, the wealthier it gets and the higher its rents become.

Landlords Quotes in The Wealth of Nations

The The Wealth of Nations quotes below are all either spoken by Landlords or refer to Landlords . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

No equal capital puts into motion a greater quantity of productive labour than that of the farmer. Not only his labouring servants, but his labouring cattle, are productive labourers. In agriculture, too, Nature labours along with man; and though her labour costs no expense, its produce has its value, as well as that of the most expensive workmen. [...] The labourers and labouring cattle, therefore, employed in agriculture, not only occasion, like the workmen in manufactures, the reproduction of a value equal to their own consumption, or to the capital which employs them, together with its owner’s profits, but of a much greater value. Over and above the capital of the farmer, and all its profits, they regularly occasion the reproduction of the rent of the landlord. This rent may be considered as the produce of those powers of Nature, the use of which the landlord lends to the farmer.

Related Characters: Farmers, Landlords

Page Number and Citation: 462–463

Explanation and Analysis:

Smith compares the activities of the four major groups that employ capital—farmers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers—and concludes that farming offers the greatest returns to the economy because investment in agriculture is the most productive use of capital. As he explains here, resources spent on agriculture virtually always return a large surplus. Farming is not just a form of human labor, he argues, but rather the marriage of human effort with the work of nature—and humans get to keep everything this marriage produces. While most other activities are not productive to generate rent for the landlord until society is very advanced, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempor

Ground-rents, so far as they exceed the ordinary rent of land, are altogether owing to the good government of the sovereign, which, by protecting the industry either of the whole people or of the inhabitants of some particular place, enables them to pay so much more than its real value for the ground which they build their houses upon; or to make to its owner so much more than compensation for the loss which he might sustain by this use of it. Nothing can be more reasonable, than that a fund, which owes its existence to the good government of the state, should be taxed peculiarly, or should contribute something more than the greater part of other funds, towards the support of that government.

Related Characters: Landlords

Page Number and Citation: 1068

Explanation and Analysis:

In his chapter on taxation, Smith argues that the government should tax the value of the lot a house sits on, and not the value of the structure itself. Such taxes are easier to administer, don’t change the landlord’s incentives, and encourage people to spend less on housing (which is an unproductive use of their wealth). But perhaps most of all, Smith also defends ground rent taxes because they are much easier for the government to justify. As he explains here, the rent for land dedicated to housing depends entirely on the surrounding area’s economic climate. The land’s “real value” Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta

Landlords Character Timeline in The Wealth of Nations

The timeline below shows where the character Landlords appears in The Wealth of Nations. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Capital Accumulation and Investment Theme Icon

...of capital invested and the rate of return. Later, once all land has become privatized, landlords start demanding rent for the use of natural materials that were once freely available. Thus,... (full context)

...someone else). Often, different people depend on these different revenue sources: laborers live on wages, landlords on rents, and investors on profit. But many people mix more than one of these... (full context)

...not earn this level of profit, and they live off profit the same way as landlords live off rents and laborers off wages.) Due to differences in supply and demand, the... (full context)

...its prices drop, then rent, wages, and/or profit must fall below their ordinary rates. Thus, landlords, workers, and/or investors will correspondingly withdraw their land, labor, and/or capital. This will reduce the... (full context)

Once land is privately owned, landlords start demanding rent. Then, they start making profit from the difference between what they pay... (full context)

...with higher provision prices, though, jobs become scarcer and wages fall. Thus, masters, farmers, and landlords tend to prefer more expensive years. (full context)

...multi-story houses, then let out a few rooms to help cover their housing costs. These landlords’ primary income comes from their trade, whereas landlords in other places live first and foremost... (full context)

Institutions and Good Governance Theme Icon

...unjustly enrich tradespeople in towns by protecting them against foreign competition. Farmers, common laborers, and landlords generally don’t have associations, so they end up paying the price of professional associations’ greed. (full context)

Landlords typically try to charge the highest rent their tenants can afford, which is everything the... (full context)

...there is plenty of stone. Similarly, there are so many trees in North America that landlords often pay people to cut them down and haul them away. But high demand for... (full context)

...they were really conversion prices. Farmers used to pay rent “in kind,” by giving the landlord a portion of whatever they produced, but landlords could also choose to demand a sum... (full context)

“Conclusion of the Chapter.” As a society’s circumstances improve, rents rise and landlords grow more powerful. Land improvement raises the rent directly: the real value of the land’s... (full context)

...a country’s annual produce gets divided into rent, wages, and profit, which respectively go to landlords, workers, and employers. These are “three great, original and constituent orders of every civilized society.”... (full context)

...groups, but not for the sake of the public good. Rather, they deceive workers and landlords into prioritizing profit over their own interests, so they should not be trusted. (full context)

...estate’s gross rent (what the farmer pays) is more than its neat rent (what the landlord retains after the cost of management and repairs, and which goes into the reserve for... (full context)

...barbarism” and concentrating all land ownership in the hands of a few political leaders. These landlords preferred to use their land for security and power, rather than agricultural production, so rather... (full context)

...their best interests to “eat as much, and to labour as little as possible.” But landlords still prefer to use enslaved labor because people love to dominate others. In North America,... (full context)

...Europe, it was replaced by metayers, or free workers who split their produce with the landlord. This system was more appealing to both these workers and the state, which saw big... (full context)

Long-term leases give farmers an incentive to improve the land, but they often don’t because landlords can too easily evict them. Yet farmers who lease land for more than 40 shillings... (full context)

After the Roman Empire fell, landlords went from living comfortable lives in houses in town to living on their estates in... (full context)

The true solution to this violence was commerce—which enabled landlords to use all of their land’s surplus for their own benefit. Instead of directly supporting... (full context)

...the grain bounty just makes everything more expensive. It doesn’t improve life for farmers and landlords at all. (full context)

...as the bounty increases exports in fertile years and imports in lean ones. Ultimately, rural landlords only supported the grain bounty because they didn’t understand the basic difference between grain and... (full context)

...system, banned grain exports, and devastated French agriculture. The agriculturalists divide people into three groups: landlords, farmers (or the “productive class”), and manufacturers and merchants (or the “unproductive class”). Agriculture requires... (full context)

...by selling rude produce and supplying people with manufactured and imported goods. This indirectly supports landlords and farmers by enabling them to focus their time, energy, and capital on agriculture. (full context)

...classes live off society’s agricultural surplus, it is unwise for them to oppress farmers and landlords. Similarly, unproductive merchant nations like Holland and Hamburgh support but also live off of the... (full context)

...some does not. Such taxes are easy to collect, and Britain’s has enriched the country’s landlords (but deprived the sovereign of revenue) because rents have risen significantly, while silver prices haven’t.... (full context)

...This is more equal than a constant land tax, but it requires more complex administration. Landlords and tenants should register their leases with the government, and landlords should be taxed more... (full context)

...church’s tithe, may look like income taxes on farmers, but they’re really land taxes on landlords. Farmers always predict them in advance and factor them into the following year’s harvest. Such... (full context)

...cost of building, so they ultimately increase the ground rent, which affects both tenants and landlords. They reduce competition for houses at higher rents but increase it at the lowest rents.... (full context)

...market rent (including for owner-occupied houses). Ground rent is the best rent to tax, as landlords do not actively use their lands, a uniform tax will not change their propensity to... (full context)

...which taxation will not change. (Rather, taxes effectively deduct a portion of the investor or landlord’s earnings.) But taxing interest is actually a mistake, because calculating interest earnings is very difficult... (full context)

...costs onto consumers, so this tax just reduces land rents, passing the cost on to landlords. However, since the tax is based on the capital invested in agriculture, farmers do try... (full context)

...on to consumers in the form of higher prices, while farmers pass them on to landlords in the form of lower rents. In manufacturing, such taxes deter hiring, harm industry, and... (full context)

...shifts some of the nation’s land and capital from private to public ownership, it reduces landlords’ investment in land improvements and encourages capital owners to invest in other countries. Thus, every... (full context)

...has four parts: “the land-tax, the stamp-duties, and the different duties of customs and excise.” Landowners in Ireland, America, and the West Indies can certainly afford to pay the land-tax. Indeed,... (full context)

...colonies export far more to Britain than they import from it, but most of their landlords live in England and simply receive their rents in sugar and rum. The northern colonies’... (full context)

Landlords Character Analysis

Landlords Quotes in The Wealth of Nations

Book 2, Chapter 5 Quotes

Book 5, Chapter 2 Quotes

Landlords Character Timeline in The Wealth of Nations